The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for driving pipes or the like tubular structures into the ground.
In the construction of tunnels, pipe lines, conduits and the like, used particularly for accommodating public utilities, it is known to drive a series of pipe sections into the ground in a direction longitudinally of the pipe sections. Usually an open trench is formed which accommodates the pipe-driving apparatus which drives each of the pipe sections in succession through one wall of the trench. The material which accumulates within the pipe sections can be removed manually or by mechanical means located within the pipe sections.
In known forms of pipe-driving apparatus a series of hydraulic piston and cylinder units or rams engage on an abutment at a wall of the trench opposite the pipe sections and the rams are connected to a thrust ring engageable on the end of the pipe section to be driven in. The thrust ring is usually guided for sliding within the trench. This apparatus and its method of operation require a trench of comparatively great length equal to at least the combined length of one of the pipe sections the length of the rams when in a fully retracted state and the appropriate dimensions of the thrust ring and abutment. A long trench is rather costly to excavate and in some cases there is insufficient space to form such a trench.
Other forms of apparatus, such as is described in our U.K. Pat. Specification 1202304, have been designed to overcome this problem. A disadvantage of this earlier apparatus is that it requires a special framework and the manual relocation of the rams is time consuming.
A general object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of and apparatus for driving pipes.